UK’s Doughty to visit Cyprus on Wednesday

The United Kingdom’s Minister of State for Europe Stephen Doughty is to visit Cyprus on Wednesday, according to reports.

The Cyprus News Agency reported that Doughty will land at Paphos airport on Wednesday afternoon, before visiting the British Akrotiri air force base, and then travelling to Nicosia to meet Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, House President Annita Demetriou, and Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou.

Doughty had told the British parliament on Monday evening that he is in “regular contact” with Kombos in light of an Iranian-made drone having hit the Akrotiri base on March 2, and with the conflict in the Middle East ongoing.

He will be the second UK government minister to make a visit to the island this month, with Defence Secretary John Healey having travelled to the island to meet his Cypriot counterpart Vasilis Palmas and visit Akrotiri on March 5.

Since then, the UK has deployed various military assets to the region, including the  Type 45 destroyer warship the HMS Dragon, three AW159 Wildcat helicopters, and a Merlin Mk2 helicopter, while Healey had also said that “top experts” from the UK had arrived in Cyprus to coordinate the bases’ air defence.

Doughty is also the usual British point of contact regarding the Cyprus problem, with the UK remaining one of the island’s three guarantor powers, alongside Greece and Turkey.

However, thus far, no arrangements have been made for him to meet any Turkish Cypriot officials, with him last having spoken with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman in December.

The next juncture with regard to the Cyprus problem will see President Nikos Christodoulides meet United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Brussels on Wednesday.

Ahead of that meeting, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis had said that an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem, which would involve the island’s two sides, the UN, and its three guarantor powers “can act as a catalyst for achieving substantial progress”.

However, UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin had said in January that no enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem could be held until more before “results on the confidence-building measures” between the island’s two sides are achieved.

A modicum of good news came on this front on Monday, with Erhurman announcing that Turkish Cypriots are now able to acquire car insurance and MOT certificates at the Astromeritis crossing point.

This initiative had been one of the confidence-building measures between the two sides announced following the tripartite meeting involving Erhurman, Christodoulides, and Holguin last December, but Erhurman then lamented in February that Christodoulides had not kept promises in this regard.